An electrical connector may be provided with a switch to detect whether an electronic card or a tray is inserted or not.
Chinese patent application CN201320273241.4 (Taiwanese patent issued as TWM469657) discloses an electrical connector which comprises a switch unit. The switch unit comprises an insulative housing, a detecting terminal and a conductive piece. The detecting terminal is fixed on the insulative housing and has an elastic arm. An end of the elastic arm extends into a card insertion space of the electrical connector. An insulative sheath surrounds the end of the elastic arm.
The detecting terminal and the conductive piece are positioned at a side of the card insertion space, in addition that a space at the side of the insertion space is occupied, the detecting terminal extends toward the card insertion space transversely so as to make the end of the elastic arm positioned in the card insertion space, and in turn allow the tray to push the detecting terminal to move toward the side of the card insertion space. The detecting terminal moves transversely to contact or be out of contact with the conductive piece, so the space at the side of the card insertion space occupied by the detecting terminal relative to the whole electrical connector will be larger. Moreover, because the detecting terminal moves transversely, the conductive piece has to be formed by cut a shield shell and bend the cut portion of the shield shell inwards so as to cooperate with the detecting terminal, therefore it is complex to manufacture the conductive piece. In addition, the detecting terminal directly contacts the tray at the side of the card insertion space, the detecting terminal will exert a force on the tray, which may result in the deformation of the empty tray or make the tray move in a direction opposite to the side of the card insertion space.